This is not the best of times for Nigerian football, because failure has become its hallmark of late. The Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2017 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, despite failing to qualify for the 2015edition of the tournament.
Nigerian football clubs have equally not fared better at the continental stage. The last time a Nigerian club won any continental trophy was in 2004 by Enyimba, when the club retained the CAF Champions League trophy it won a year earlier.

Since then, it has been misses upon misses. But this evening in Sousse, Tunisia, Enyimba is poised to rekindle hope in Nigerian football by qualifying for the lucrative stage of the CAF Champions League. But to achieve this feat, Enyimba must survive a 90 minutes game against Etoile Sportive du Sahel.

As the only Nigerian club remaining in any of the CAF competition, it will enter the pitch this evening with a 3-0 advantage recorded in the first leg in Port Harcourt, the only club to have secured such a huge goal margin in the first leg of the second round of the qualifying series.
Enyimba, which last qualified for the lucrative group phase of the tournament in 2011, even reaching the semis that year, had endured difficult time to make it this far.
Etoile, on the other hand, will attempt to pin Enyimba back by cancelling the three-goal advantage. This, on paper, may look herculean, but considering that the North Africans are the current holders of the CAF Confederations Cup, more so, they have been invincible at home, will make Enyimba to remain resilient for the entire duration of the match.
This is not the first meeting between these clubs. In their two –legged CAF Champions League final in 2004, Etoile won the first leg 2-1 at the Stade Olympique, and Enyimba returned the compliment at the National Stadium, Abuja before winning the ensuing penalty shoot –out.

Enyimba should be ready for the on and off the field antics of its host as alleged by Felix Anyansi Agwu, the team’s chairman, who accused Etoile of “frustrating antics.”
“We arrived here about 10:25am (Tuesday). We were not received at the airport ?- this was surprising,” Any anti Agwu said.
“They were supposed to be there to receive us. It took quite a while before they brought two buses to us.

“From Tunis to Sousse is about 100 kilometres – it’s a journey of about 35 to 40 minutes. Even if we were staying in Monastir, it’s an additional 20 kilometres from Sousse. It took us a complete four ?hours to get there, for a journey that should take us one hour 20 minutes maximum.”
“We were supposed to train at 8pm, but at 7:30pm, they didn’t provide us with any means of transportation. So we were forced to charter about 6 taxis to go to the training ground.
“We know what North African teams are capable of. They are usually very strong and determined at home and also throw a lot of antics into the arrangements. But we are very, very ready. We expect hostility on and off the field. We have trained under floodlights and on artificial turf, and we will give as much as we get,” said Felix Anyansi-Agwu, chairman of Enyimba FC.

Anyansi should not be surprised by the antics of the Tunisians. This is why the players should heed the advice of its coach Kadiri Ikhana, who won the trophy in 2003 with the club.
He said that Enyimba will be knocked out if they underrate the Tunisians.
“It will be dangerous for Enyimba if they think they have qualified for the group stage because they beat Etoile 3-0 in the first leg,” said Ikhana.
“I spoke to some members of the Enyimba technical crew and explained to them that it is not over.
“North African teams can easily turn around even a four-goal deficit and as such, 3-0 against Etoile is not really such a big deal,” Ikhana told supersport.
He also warned them to berace up for the cold weather in Sousse saying this could be an important factor in the eventual outcome of the game.
The temperature in Sousse is expected to drop to 16 degrees on Wednesday evening when the game will kick off.
“At this time of the year, the weather in Sousse is quite cold, especially when you compare it with what you have in Nigeria now.
“Enyimba players should approach the game as though they did not score even a single goal in the first leg.

“This Etoile team can actually score six goals at home.
“However, I am confident in this Enyimba team. They have players who can get the job done.
“If they play with the right attitude, I am sure they will get as far as the final of this year’s CAF Champions League,” he said.

Also Amaju Pinnick, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said that they should dig their feet into the ground and throw out Etoile.
The Confederation of African Football has appointed Moroccan referee Noureddine El Jaafari to take charge of proceedings, to be assisted by compatriots Hicham Abbou and Youssef Mabrouk.